I’m Getting Sentimental Over You!

On a recent visit with my three sisters (our annual get-together), we got to talking about all sorts of things, including, of course, our children and how quickly they have all grown up. One sister said the hardest thing for her about having her children grow up is that, in the process, she lost the little people they were at age 2, 4, 6, etc., as if someone came and spirited them away.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot since I got back from the trip and realizing that there is always a part of me that is half expecting those little ones to show back up, as if they are hiding somewhere in the house. And thinking about them makes time compress and expand at the same time.

Lizzie and Parker in Roxbury, NY

If I close my eyes, I can remember Lizzie, our first daughter, tromping into our kitchen in upstate New York in her favorite rubber boots and saying, “I ahna Goo-Koo,” (I want a cookie) or singing her way downstairs in the morning. Same with Parker, next in line. I can see him playing Power Rangers with his buddy Max or sitting at the kitchen table with his pirate ship and pirates and doing all the different voices for the various pirates and their enemies. Becky is often sitting in her high chair (I think I must have left her in there a lot!), smiling at the thought of all the mischief she is cooking up to get her brother or sister to pay attention to her or standing at the bathroom mirror, cutting herself trying to shave her chin with her father’s razor.

Becky

Josie, the youngest, is always living in some story of her own making, like the millions of worlds she created for her dolls, or like the Madison Avenue world she inhabited one night in the bathroom, washing a hand towel over and over while singing out her version of the ad for OxyClean: “it gets your whites whiter and your bwights bwighter!”

Josie in Asheville

So, the memories are vivid, but, if I think about it hard enough, they are not as fresh as I would like them to be. And sometimes it’s hard to sort out what I really remember from what I have recorded in pictures and videos. The hard part, I guess, about trying to hold onto memories of your children as little people is that, when they are actually little and getting bigger every day, every memory is constantly getting replaced with a new one, each time the child does something new and different. (This is why I should have written things down in baby books!) Before you even have a chance to catch your breath, the two-year-old version of your child is replaced with the three-year-old version, and you’re off and running on a whole new child! Or, to state it more accurately in terms of how it feels, the two-year-old is replaced with the twenty-six year old version!

The “Men in Black” Christmas Card

One great thing is that I still get glimpses of those earlier children in their new, larger bodies. Every now and then, one of them will smile or laugh a certain way or turn their head at a certain angle, and there is the three-year-old version of themselves peeking out from behind their eyes or the six-year-old version looking worried and serious. Same look, new source of worry!

Here’s to all the different versions of my children, in all their glory, including those little people who are hiding somewhere (maybe they will come back as grandchildren?) but especially these wonderful and strange grown-ups now inhabiting my world and saying they came from me and Tom!

4 thoughts on “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You!”

HI Jane, Just so you know, I love reading your posts! I know you write them for your children, but I feel like you are writing me a long letter, and I really miss those from old friends. Thanks for being my blog mate, and, a wonderful writer. xxx Sadhvi

Jane, not ever having kids, I don’t know exactly what you are going through, but I have the same feelings with my dog, who is getting older. I know it’s not exactly the same, but they just get inside your heart, and it’s hard to see them leave, no matter what. I really enjoy your posts, and all the gals at Oops50…can’t wait for your Sirius show! 🙂